Before you buy a horse...RANT

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So if you are thinking of buying a horse...please, please, please can you draw up a budget (using Excel or on paper), calculating how much it will cost you to keep the horse per year?


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Surely most horse owners tend to do this anyway, whether on a spread sheet or in their head? I don't do it this meticulously but I set aside say £700/800 each month to cover costs.
 
I agree with you but unfortunatly I now have my whole life spreadsheeted out and when I see how much stuff costs I realise to my horror that the amount of chocolate required is inversely proportional to the bottom line. The unfortunate result of this is the more I budget the more chocolate is needed.

Joking apart I do agree with you beacuase you never want to be in the position where a horse has its shoes on too long because you cant afford the farrier etc.
But then being somewhat ancient I was brought up in an era where you saved up and then spent rather than the other way round so when I got made redundant I didnt have cards to pay off.
 


I've found a major problem financially and worth consideration for any new owner is deciding what to do with your horse. For example I love schooling/dressage BUT that means having paying for the right yard with a good manege and riding lessons, lessons are a major expense every month if you want to compete or specialise.

I went down the schooling route with two ponies and had to give up due to work, Tia immediately went to a much much much cheaper yard as all she needed was a field and stable.

I forgot to add, the only reason I have a car is because of the horse..apart from her I don't need it so that's MOT tax insurance petrol new tyres tracking...
 
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So if you scrape together the money to buy your £1k horse, and, before you have a chance to insure it, it requires colic surgery, what then? Or if you are made redundant?
People need to think about the expected, and unexpected costs of owning horses, before they buy, not afterwards.
Credit is easy, but it can be dangerous if relied on - look at the current economic problems
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if I'm right in what i think you've said there, then none of us should eve buy a horse again, unless we have our own yard or savings to keep the horse for x amount of years should we be made redundant.

In that case, maybe people should think about not having babies either? I think it's a rare few who can 100% say their job is safe right now, or that they will still be employed in 10 years time. Or that God Forbid they have an accident which deems them incapable of work and caring for their horse.

We can go through the 'what if's forever, but sometimes life is about the here and now.

I understand fully what you're saying about not being able to afford a bale of hay, wormers etc, but I think the majority of owners are responsible and will buy a horse AFTER considering all these things.

Daughter's pony cost less than a cheapo Ibiza holiday, and he doesnt get new this new that, not because we can't afford it but because I don't waste money. refused to pay thousands for something that wasnt necessary (ie a flashy show pony). he gets what he NEEDS, and keeping him on a budget allows for other pleasure in family life (holidays, new clothes). he costs me on average of £15 a month to keep, albeit with the priviledge of my dad being a fermer so having access to stable, field, hay and straw. But that doesnt mean that if the farm were to be sold we couldnt afford livery. We made sure of that BEFORE we bought him.

IF, God forbid our income was stunted by redundancy then the pony would live on grass livery, or if we couldnt afford that or found his welfare was being jeopardised then he;d be PTS, especially in this climate. I think alot of owners would think along the same lines.

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imo,to buy the horse is the cheapest part.it`s the keeping of it that costs,no to mention the unexpected.
 
I can easily afford a horse, at an estimated cost of say £750 per month, but it would still take me many months to save up for a say £6k horse. It doesn't mean that I can't afford it, just means that I'm being prudent, saving up rather than taking out a loan, and leaving other savings untouched for a rainy day/vet bill/broken boiler etc.

I think your rant is a bit sweeping and inaccurate, but acurate in many cases
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In one respect I agree but I dont have £4000 lying around but caneasily afford the upkeep of a horse. I ensure I have 20% of my salary free so that I can pay for my horse- but that does not equate to £4000 etc. I have paid for a horse in instalments before, and had that horse for 4 years only sold it because I left for uni, does that make me irresponsible? I had the horse insured and it was happy ad healthy. If I saw my ideal horse which was more than the £1500 i have saved- and the owner was willing to accept instalments i would still buy it.

Shadow had his every whim caterd for..... i would be very upset if I was told I was a bad horse owner because I had to sell/save to buy him!!
 
This is where IMO, these "so-called" Rescue sites fall down

NO WAY would WHW/Blue Cross/Redwings et al allow Joe Public to "rescue" an animal without PROPER checks first.


and..if my sources are to be believed..its not just people with financial constrants either.....
 
Oh Shills, does this mean I'm teacher's pet?
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please, pretty please??

I loan/share at the moment, and am aware that all good things come to an end at some point, so am starting to look at the financials of owning my own again (I have in the past).

I budget obsessively anyway so I spend X per month on loan horse, have worked out that I can save Y per month towards a horse in the future, and have another spreadsheet listing all the items I would need to pay for with owning my own horse, so I know that once I am able to make the combination of what I am saving and what I am currently paying for loan horse combined equal the spreadsheet figure, I could in theoy own my own again, plus I won't suddenly miss the money as I am already spending on loan and saving towards own, and I will hopefully have a nice little lump sum for all the initial expenses of buying new tack etc.

I am lucky/unlucky enough to have a stash of money saved away from when the insurance company paid out for the loss of my last horse
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And since I have already experience the pain of insurance and huge vets bills, my spreadsheet allows for a very comprehensive insurance cover, I should in theory only have the excess to pay in any claim. Which I have also budgeted in the spreadsheet to stash away X per month towards unexpected vets bills, like those big enough to hurt but too small to bother claiming and therefore getting excluded on your policy.

All this means I can't currently afford a horse based on my current budgeting (which also includes boring but necessary things like saving a little towards a new car as I know mine will KO in a year or two's time) and it will be a while until I can afford to based on all the "luxuries" that I don't consider luxuries, like godo quality feed and suppliments. I probably could afford to buy one and scrimp on insurance, feed second rate hay etc but I wouldn't want to.

Am I starting to sound obsessive?! I think I am!
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In that case, maybe people should think about not having babies either? I think it's a rare few who can 100% say their job is safe right now, or that they will still be employed in 10 years time. Or that God Forbid they have an accident which deems them incapable of work and caring for their horse.


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FWIW I don't think people should be planning on making babies if they can't afford it. I think you should budget for children too
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Although I appreciate accidents happen
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In a way I agree with you Shils however there are some exceptions! I say because I am one of them...

I was really naughty and accepted a free horse (who I had been part loaning for 6 months previously) from a complete idiot of a guy. I was 16 and no job or money in the bank. My parents didn't even find out for a few weeks.

However I remember spending a few days and sleepless nights applying for jobs and eventually got two. I was walking the 30 minutes to the yard at 5 am before college, and working most nights till midnight.

Of course that couldn't carry on and I did get better off financially, I've always paid for him myself, I now have substantial savings in the bank, he is fully insured and we've actually come out of it all quite well, in my opinion.

Although it may not seem like it, I do have my head screwed on and I always have budgets drawn up. I knew he would be 'the horse of a lifetime' for me, and my riding confidence, thanks to my boy, has increased so much.

I've now had him 3 years
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Personally I would rather see someone save up to buy a horse, as opposed to someone taking otu a loan to buy a horse.

If you save £300 per month, once you have reached the amount you need to purchase the horse, tack, pay for vettings etc, you will be used to that £300 per month being allocated to another cause and therefore the horses upkeep will be covered (only using figures plucked out of the sky by the way!!)

If you are impatient and take out a loan, all of a sudden you have a debt with the bank to pay back - with interest, as well as a horse's keep to pay for. Not good sense in my opinion!!

I dont know the specifics of the situation that you were referring to, but in simple terms, that is how I view this.
 
I think part of the problem is that a lot of novice owners think they can get by with buying a cheap horse and keeping it on grass livery for £15 pw therefore much cheaper than their weekly riding lesson and they can ride it every day. Then you get the double whammy of not being able to afford an extra bale of hay a week combined with no horse experience.

Worse, are the people who buy horses on the proviso that they can get a sharer to help with the costs.

I think the point being made is that if you cant afford to pay £2k+ for a horse, or be able to save that money in the time it takes to look for a horse (it took me 6 months to find mine) then the chances of the buyer having sufficient funds to look after the horse on a monthly basis for at least a year are pretty slim.

I have always said budget + 50% and you should get to what you actually pay. If you are a rugaholic like me, then double it.

The problem is with the CC and the increase in unscrupulous dealers, I think there will be a lot of cheap horses being bought by novices and not being kept properly, either due to lack of fund or experience or both. And that is without taking into account all the foreign rescues. I have nothing against rescues, one of mine is (but he is English!) but in some cases I wonder if the horse has actually been rescued at all - not mine though, he lives in the lap of luxury in full livery and would be horrified at the thought of being thrown back into a bare field 24/7.
 
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Is it OK to keep buying horses who will all have a life of luxury, but you can no longer afford to go food shopping, ever?
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It didn't hurt, but I have to say my stomach is having involuntary contractions after all the gagging
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I can see that for you, it isn't an issue. If memory serves, you have plenty of cash saved to buy a dressage horse, and have your own yard.....

I do still believe you are more likely to be in a position to keep a horse well, if you're not selling the family silver to buy them in the first place, as this suggests you would have no spare cash, in the event of any misfortune....


But if you think that buying the horse alone, is the main financial hurdle to be overcome, then you are indeed, missing my point..

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all very true but i did have to save & forgo other things in order to achieve my goal of getting enough money together for a horse upgrade

i do agree with you to a large degree , but provided people are sensible eg insure the horse , there should be no large scale expenses beyond everyday keep

i suppose its really only the new horse owners who often under estimate the real everyday costs , the rest of us are well aware
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i think that the general problem relates not just to horses , but also to the holiday , new kitchen etc you might want, & it is that modern society expects to be able to just go out & acquire things they want , no saving up for it like our parents did , its a throw away society where people can easily acquire things (ie on credit) that they really can't afford & give little thought to how they will meet repayments or upkeep costs , unfortunately this for some people will also apply to horses , sad but inevitable in modern society , throw in with this a dose of ignorance of basic horse care & knowledge & hey presto we have the sort of person i suspect you are truely talking about ...... the type that go buy a cheap horse that has terrible conformation, behavioural or health problems (possibly because its all that is attainable) that is totally unsuitable for them & that they don't really know how to care for adequately & as a result of that are not fully aware of the costs involved in providing adequate care ??
 
Yes I agree, too many people get horses without fully appreciating costs of keeping and the comittment required. I have seen too many cases where people try to eek a shoeing out an extra few weeks, and buy cheap hay - all false economy in the end. If horse rescue was as stringent as our local cat rescue we would be OK - I felt like I was going through a thorough interrogation - and rightly so!!
 
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